


The Mirror That Shatters

by bardsley



Category: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Genre: Jealousy, Other, Revenge, Unrequited, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 16:41:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8168780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bardsley/pseuds/bardsley
Summary: The Magic Mirror sees everything, but it is only Queen Grimhilde he longs to see. Yet, she never truly looks at him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My thanks to DarkAngelAzrael for all her help. All remaining mistakes are mine.

 

 The Magic Mirror had no eyes to turn away. He saw all. Even if it were him to choose that which would be seen and unseen, he was compelled to obey his Mistress’s commands. Queen Grimhilde demanded that the Magic Mirror pronounce the name of the fairest in the land. How could he do so, but to look upon every piece of Eve’s flesh within the kingdom?

 

So the Magic Mirror cast his cold, eyeless gaze upon the old peddler woman, the mother who lay dying even as she suckled her infant at her breast, and the young maiden singing to the creatures of the forest. The Magic Mirror saw these and every other woman in the kingdom, and they all bored him – except for Queen Grimhilde herself.

 

The only visions that the Magic Mirror savored were those of the austere queen in moments when she most lacked reserve: Grimhilde in her bath – the water drizzling across her pale skin, her long ebony hair clinging to her back. Grimhilde in her bed, her face unpainted and lips slack with sleep. And – most savored because it was most seldom seen – Grimhilde’s shapely mouth curved into an inevitably brief smile.

 

And it was not merely the queen’s beauty that made the Magic Mirror burn. Her knowledge of magic was powerful enough to allow her to command _him_. The dignity and poise with which she carried herself was fitting for the queen and the sorceress that she was. And while the Magic Mirror found her preoccupation with being the fairest petty, he could not help but admire the way Grimhilde gave all of herself to something that she wanted without restraint of love or reason.

 

The more the Magic Mirror looked upon Queen Grimhilde, the more he desired to see. Every moment that the Magic Mirror did not spend dutifully obeying Grimhilde the Queen was spent in watching Grimhilde the woman. He came to be captivated by the curve of her neck as her head was bent in study of some arcane tome. He became enchanted by the gentle way Grimhilde’s cruel hands could caress the black feathered skull of her pet raven.

 

Over time, it began to trouble the Magic Mirror that the Grimhilde that he saw in these unguarded moments was never the queen who appeared to summon him. She looked on him, but she did not see. It would have weighed upon his heart, had he had one. He began to resent the way Grimhilde captivated him as much as he resented his captivity within the glass. The way that her mystery enchanted him came to seem one in the same as the enchantment that left him enslaved.

 

Lacking a heart to guide him, the Magic Mirror put his mind to the task of devising his revenge. He did not have to look far. In the blossoming Snow White he found the perfect cat’s paw with which to strike at his glorious but vain queen. The Magic Mirror had no doubt that proclaiming Snow White the fairest in the land would hurt Queen Grimhilde. Perhaps it might leave her shattered.

 

And not even the Magic Mirror knew what might happen then. Perhaps Grimhilde would turn her mind to other things. Perhaps she might seek guidance rather than so proudly issue commands. Perhaps she might even look on him, and finally see.


End file.
